The ministry said in a statement: "We received 15 bodies of Palestinian martyrs who were released today through the International Committee of the Red Cross, bringing the total number of bodies received to 345." It explained that "only 99 bodies have been identified so far out of the 345 bodies that arrived without names."
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement that it "facilitated the transfer of the bodies of Palestinians to the authorities in Gaza in its capacity as a neutral intermediary, at the request and with the consent of the parties," confirming that "the number of bodies received today reached 15," according to what the local health authorities informed it of.
The ministry announced in previous statements that the bodies it receives from Israel bear signs of abuse, including beatings, handcuffing, blindfolding, and changes in facial features, without names.
Families identify the bodies of their sons, which arrived from Israel without names, by what remains of distinctive marks on their bodies or by the clothes they were wearing before they went missing, amid the absence of testing equipment due to the Israeli blockade and the destruction of laboratories in Gaza.
Regarding the newly received bodies, the Ministry of Health did not clarify whether they bore names or showed signs of torture.
Before the ceasefire came into effect, Israel was holding 735 Palestinian bodies in what are known as "numbered graves," according to the Palestinian National Campaign to Retrieve the Bodies of Martyrs and Reveal the Fate of the Missing (non-governmental).
In addition to the 735 bodies, the campaign referred to a report published by the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz on July 16, stating that the Israeli occupation army is holding about 1,500 bodies of Palestinians from Gaza in the notorious Sde Teiman camp.
Occupation violations
In a related context, the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced that the death toll from the Israeli genocide since October 2023 has risen to "69,785 martyrs and 170,965 wounded".
The ministry said in a daily statistical statement that "the sector's hospitals received 10 martyrs during the past 24 hours (2 new, and 8 were recovered from under the rubble)." The ministry did not elaborate on the new martyrs, but Israel continues to violate the ceasefire agreement by bombing civilian areas in various parts of the sector, as well as firing at civilians.
The statement reported that since October 11, Israel has killed 347 Palestinians and injured 889 others, in violation of the agreement, and confirmed that there are victims under the rubble of destroyed houses and in the streets, where ambulance and civil defense crews are unable to reach them to rescue them.
The two-year genocide ended with a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel that came into effect on October 10, 2025.
In addition to the repeated violations, Israel is shirking its obligations under the ceasefire agreement, including bringing in hundreds of heavy vehicles needed to lift tons of rubble to retrieve the bodies of Palestinians buried under the debris.
The government media office in Gaza estimates that there are about 9,500 Palestinians missing, either under the rubble, or whose fate remains unknown as a result of the Israeli genocide.
In addition to the victims, the genocidal war caused massive destruction to 90% of the civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, leaving 70 million tons of rubble.
